


〖Hollow Saviors〗

by Zell_Hatoule



Category: Astral Chain (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Suicide Squad, Everyone's morally ambiguous at best, F/F, F/M, Hal becomes Mission Control, Hal is always internally screaming, Including Hal, M/M, Max committed treason, The Twins are synced with each other, everyone's a criminal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-24 22:48:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20713805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zell_Hatoule/pseuds/Zell_Hatoule
Summary: They’re all wanted men and women. Murders, drug runners, mafia leaders, and traitors. But when the Neuron Project gets greenlighted, nobody wants to be on the receiving end of being eaten if it fails. They’re acceptable casualties, and if they want a get out of jail free card, they better hope they can keep up.





	〖Hollow Saviors〗

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still busy with File, so this one is just... floating around until I'm at a point I'm happy with.

Hal nervously follows behind Olive, his drone whirring at top speed as it tries to keep up with her heels, the sharp clicks on marble only making him more anxious. She’s unusually silent, her expression terse rather the typically friendly - and teasing - expression she normally wore.

“S-so...” Hal tries, only to get stopped by a glare from her. He falls meekly silent, and they continue onwards. It doesn’t take them too much longer for them to arrive at the ARI holding cells. To his surprise, four of the cells were occupied, and on closer inspection, one had  _ two _ people in them rather than one. “Erk?” He tries to ask what’s going on, only manages a strangled squeak.

“Alright Hal.” Olive says once they end up in the observation deck. “Listen carefully, okay?” She’s not being friendly - instead she’s terse and her expression leans towards displeasure. “I know you’ve been hacking into the Neuron project, especially the Legionis programme.” Hal squeaks over the speakers, wishes he really  _ hadn’t _ come into work this morning. “You’re very lucky, you know - I managed to talk the commander into turning you into a field commander rather than tossing you in jail.” Hal bravely does not squeak, even though he so very desperately wants to. “How far have you gotten into the Legionis programme?” She asks him, and Hal swallows from behind the screen.

“Er… I know it has to do with chimeras… and that people have been refusing to volunteer because they think it has a high risk of death.” She side-eyes him for a moment, and his drone scrunches up, shows his nerves.

“Half-right. It involves linking a person with a chimera to turn them into a counter chimeric weapon. It’s a high risk, high reward system, but nobody wants to give it a try without at least knowing it will work.” She nods at the holding cells. “That’s where they - and  _ you _ \- come in.” Her eyes seek him out, and she gives him a faint smile. “All of the people you see here show high chimeric affinity - or, in layman's terms, they have a high resistance to redshift. They’re also criminals, put in for life sentences.” Hal jitters. “Much like  _ you _ would be, poking around in something that is considered treasonous.” Her gaze narrows, and he shrinks. “You’re good Hal, but you can’t outpace the entirety of the technical division forever, you understand? The Commander is being  _ very _ generous with this chance, so I do hope you won’t waste it.” She says the words sharply, and he nods, shrinking even further. “Good!” She smiles warmly at him, pats the top of his drone-head. “Now, originally I was going to be riding herd on them, but they’ve decided that you’ll do it instead. Your job is pretty simple - you’ll be their field ops manager - relay information for them in the field, keep them up to date on any developments and work with them on providing aid against chimeric outbreaks.” Hal dithers a moment, before piping up at last.

“Um… how am I doing that? I get that I’m going to be mission control, but is there like a procedure? Am I getting taught how to?” He says the words with trepidation, and Olive smiles grimly.

“Good question. I’m teaching you how to run mission control.” That doesn’t ease his nerves in the slightest, and she gives him a slight smirk. “But, we do need to move on. I’ll introduce you to who you’re working with now.” The screen changes, and it homes in on a tall, stocky adult with silver hair in what might have once been a regulation military cut. It no longer was so neat, but the impression remained. His blue eyes were sharp, and he’d looked up as soon as the patrol drone that was observing the room had neared. A thick, jagged triple scar had cut through a single eye, sealing it shut, and the scowl he gives the camera is feral and dangerous.

“This here is Max Howard. He was supposed to be in jail for treason, but every person we ever sent to capture him was killed. He’s by far and large the strongest of the five people here, and the easiest to get along with. Generally, Max doesn’t show signs of overt hostility, just a strong desire to be left alone to raise his kids. Or at least, that’s what we thought until recently.” Olive grimaces. “Turns out, he runs a large amount of the criminal underground with his two enforcers. They dabble in everything from drug-running to brothels, though Max does seem to have standards. He runs a tight ship - anyone who works under him is fanatically loyal, and his enforcers are no different. We only got  _ him _ because we caught his kids. Claims to be a father of one, though there’s definitely two bodies in the next cell.” Olive taps on the screen.

“His treason charge is for abandoning his post during the Pandemic eighteen years ago, and escaping with two young children that the ARI were bringing in for research.” The drone moves away, and the giant of a man sits back down, scowl not leaving his features as he watches the drone fly to the next cell. There are two bodies in this one, the subjects within perfect mirrors of one another. Their chests rise and fall in unison, gazes never leaving one another.

It’s  _ creepy _ . The drone bumps against the glass, rattling the view, and their heads turn as one to stare at the machine, heads tilting in mirrored question. There is no curiosity in their eyes, only a blank acceptance. Hal shivers.

“The Howard twins. They are identical twins, one male and female, though nobody can really tell which is which without the IRIS system, and even then, they’ve hijacked their IDs to make it difficult to tell. Intelligence used to think of them as one person, but after they were captured, we were able to identify them as the twins Max took with him when he abandoned his post. They’re his primary enforcers. If they aren’t guarding him, they’re taking out the competition or running his intelligence network. The only name they were ever given was Akira, and they refuse to answer to anything aside from Akira Alpha and Akira Omega.” Olive scowls at them. “They won’t eat unless they’re in the same room, they refuse to eat something different than the other twin. ARI had a few prelim tests come back - they have a sync rate between each other that’s always running, but they have to recalibrate to each other every morning. It still doesn’t give us any clues as to what they’re like, aside from loyal to Max. Some moron tried to give them hormones to make it easier to tell them apart. Max told them to deal with it, and they managed to sneak out of their cells, kill the scientist, and sneak back in before the guard change. We’re still not sure how they did it.” Hal jerks away, his drone wheeling around awkwardly at the idea that they could  _ do _ that in the most high-security facility in the entire Ark. “Our department has been working overtime to figure out how.” She sighs, and the twins turn away, gazes once again locking on to each other. The drone moves on, to a woman who - out of all of them - was chained up, eyes flashing with rage at the sight of the drone.

“Alicia Lopez. Hitwoman for hire, stringently Anti-UNION. She lost her parents to a chimera attack, and since the counter-chimeric system failed her, she’s been going after high profile targets ever since, in revenge for their failure to keep them safe. She’s very good at her job, and we can track fifty murders of ARI scientists and UNION officials to her name.” Hal whimpers from behind the screen. Why was everyone so  _ scary _ ? “Known as the Beast - she’s been caught doing superhuman feats that involve climbing up glass buildings, lifting cars and throwing them, and on one  _ memorable _ occasion, ripping a chimera apart despite being unable to see them.” Hal cringes, terrified. “She used to have family, but they’ve long since disowned her.” Olive gives him a rueful look. “This last one I believe you’re more familiar with, I’m afraid.” The drone moves to the last cell, and Hal stops breathing. His drone plummets a foot before recovering and floating back up, antennae wiggling wildly.

“Jin Wong. Chinese-Japanese resident, lived in Zone 47. Lost his mother to the Pandemic when her emergency vehicle was overrun by Aberrations, his father died a year later when he was snatched back out to sea by a chimera. Joined Neuron three years ago, worked under you as a techie.” Olive pinches the bridge of her nose. “Turned out that goody-two-shoes act was a lie - the boy’s been working as an information specialist for the last three years - he’s got contacts  _ everywhere _ .” Jin looks up, and a slow, menacing smile curls over his lips, honey-colored eyes shifting in the light. There’s a predatory amusement in his gaze, and he gives the drone a little wiggle of his fingers, and a laugh. Olive’s expression fills with sympathy, but she plows on, merciless. “Known to have used his contacts to get at least a dozen information specialists off the street, he’s taken over the entirety of street-based intelligence in the Ark. He holds his people with loyalty, ruthlessness, and a pretty large handful of blackmail. If you’re looking for information, chances are, you got it from him.” Jin’s gaze doesn’t falter from the drone in the slightest until the drone itself leaves his sight.

“Of everyone here, Jin and the Twins share the highest potential sync capacity.” Olive turns to Hal, gives him an expectant look. “ _ You _ will be expected to accompany them on their calibrations, until they’ve been synced up and properly handled. Any questions?”

As he views the five through the screen, Hal doubted any of the ones he’d ask would change anything.

**Author's Note:**

> This is what happens when Suicide Squad is on while I'm playing Astral Chain. I genuinely cannot believe that anyone was willing to initially test this on regular people, so here you go. One AU featuring AC's Best Boi Hal in a constant state of internal screaming.


End file.
